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Thread: Print-on-demand bone could quickly mend major injuries

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    Thumbs Up Print-on-demand bone could quickly mend major injuries



    Source: Science


    "If you shatter a bone in the future, a 3D printer and some special ink could be your best medicine. Researchers have created what they call “hyperelastic bone” that can be manufactured on demand and works almost as well as the real thing, at least in monkeys and rats. Though not ready to be implanted in humans, bioengineers are optimistic that the material could be a much-needed leap forward in quickly mending injuries ranging from bones wracked by cancer to broken skulls.

    “This is a neat way to overcome the challenges we face in generating bone replacements,” says Jos Malda, a biomaterials engineer from Utrecht University in the Netherlands who was not involved in the work. “The scaffold is simpler to make than others and it offers more benefits.”

    Surgeons currently replace shattered or missing bones with a number of things. The most common option is an autograft, where a piece of bone is taken from a patient’s own body, usually from a hip or a rib, and implanted where it’s needed elsewhere in that same patient’s skeleton. Surgeons prefer autografts because they’re real bone complete with stem cells that give rise to cartilage and bone cells to provide extra support for the new graft. (Humans can’t regrow entire skeletons from scratch with stem cells, but existing bone can signal stem cells where to grow and what to grow into.) What’s more, because the new bone replacement comes from a patient’s own body, there’s no risk of immune rejection. But only so much of a person’s skeleton is available for grafting, and doing so tacks on another painful surgery and recovery for the patient.

    Another bone replacement option is creating a scaffold for bone to grow on. These scaffolds, made of both natural and synthetic materials, work like the framing of a building. When inserted into the body, stem cells latch onto the structure and differentiate into cells that start to build bone, much as construction workers assemble walls, floors, and glass around a skyscraper’s steel girders.

    Or, at least, that’s how it should work—unlike in an autograft, stem cells don’t always turn into the needed bone or cartilage because of the scaffolds’ material makeup. Researchers have gotten stem cells to grow on a ceramic material called calcium phosphate (CaP), but this scaffold is stiff and brittle, making it difficult to implant into patients. To make matters worse, the immune system occasionally sees these scaffolds as foreign and attacks them, preventing any bone growth at all. And if a scaffold is to be used to regenerate small bones, such as many of those found in the face, for example, doctors worry that it would take too much time and money to make them from CaP.

    Researchers at Northwestern University, Evanston, in Illinois are working on a material to remedy all of these issues. Their hyperelastic bone is a type of scaffold made up of hydroxyapatite, a naturally occurring mineral that exists in our bones and teeth, and a biocompatible polymer called polycaprolactone, and a solvent. Hydroxyapatite provides strength and offers chemical cues to stem cells to create bone. The polycaprolactone polymer adds flexibility, and the solvent sticks the 3D-printed layers together as it evaporates during printing. The mixture is blended into an ink that is dispensed by the printer, layer by layer, into exact shapes matching the bone that needs to be replaced. The idea is, a patient would come in with a nasty broken bone—say, a shattered jaw—and instead of going through painful autograft surgeries or waiting for a custom scaffold to be manufactured, he or she could be x-rayed and a 3D-printed hyperelastic bone scaffold could be printed that same day.

    “We’re printing flexible scaffolds that will encourage bone to grow through and around them,” says Ramille Shah, a material science engineer and co-author on the study.

    To test their material, the team first tested their 3D-printed scaffold as a material to fuse spinal vertebrae in rats. Their goal was to see whether their material could lock two adjacent vertebrae in place as well as other scaffolds commonly used to treat spinal injury patients. Eight weeks after the Northwestern researchers implanted the hyperelastic bone, they found that new blood vessels had grown into their scaffold—a necessary step to keep bone-forming tissue alive—and calcified bone started to form from the rats’ existing stem cells. The combination fused the vertebrae more efficiently than the controls that received either a bone graft from a donor or nothing at all, the researchers report today in Science Translational Medicine.

    The researchers also used hyperelastic bone to repair a macaque monkey’s damaged skull. After 4 weeks with a hyperelastic bone implant, the scaffold was infiltrated with blood vessels and some calcified bone. Equally important, the macaque didn’t suffer from any adverse biological effects, such as inflammation or infection, that many synthetic implants can cause.

    Because the ink materials—that is, hydroxyapatite along with the polymer and solvent—are commonly used in biomedical engineering labs, Malda says, hyperelastic bone would be cheap to print. What’s more, the researchers were able to create the scaffolds lightning-quick by 3D-printing standards, in less than 5 hours for each one. That means future scaffolds could be printed to exact specs, which would be useful in facial reconstruction, or printed into sheets that surgeons could cut and paste into the shape they want, Shah says. “The sky’s the limit for this material’s applications.”

    Still, the work needs to be replicated many more times before being implemented in humans, says Scott Hollister, a biomedical engineer at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, who was not involved with the study. If it is, that could be a boon for patients around the globe. “The ability to easily print customizable implants is a big advance and would offer a lot of opportunities in areas from plastic surgery to tumor removal and repair.”
    "


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    Thanks for the really interesting post, Aragorn. A product like this would be invaluable to our elderly who frequently fall and break bones.

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    The Supervet Season 7 Episode 2

    I think this is a great science and benefit to humanity and also animals....

    Here in the UK there's a very popular show called "The Supervet" and this Irish genius of a Vet has been using a 3D printer as a tool for some time now on a lot of cats and dogs. Now if you love your pet, like most of us do, you'll do just about anything for your special friend.

    Posting a show from season 7, one busy day at the clinic.


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    Really, really interesting. The line between synthetic and organic is becoming less clear every day. These are most interesting times. This is in effect a sort of transhumanism, to say that all things cyborg in nature are not good seems premature. This developement is quite amazing.

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    Quote Originally posted by pointessa View Post
    Really, really interesting. The line between synthetic and organic is becoming less clear every day.
    Well, from the purely chemical point of view, the word "organic" refers to any substance which includes the element carbon. That doesn't necessarily mean that it's a biological compound, though.

    But yes, the line between synthetic and biological is blurring more and more, as science manages to isolate more and more distinct substances which exist within the body of a living being.

    Quote Originally posted by pointessa View Post
    These are most interesting times. This is in effect a sort of transhumanism, to say that all things cyborg in nature are not good seems premature. This developement is quite amazing.
    I don't think that this in itself would be a form of transhumanism, although I certainly do see how transhumanism itself could employ some of these techniques. These artificial bones are intended as a scaffold — or template, if you will — upon which real bone could form, generated by stem cells, as well as blood vessels and muscle tissue. In itself it's not too different from dental work, or from certain implants which many of us have as a result of an accident or another injury.

    For instance, when I had my surgery for the bilateral inguinal hernia back in 1998, the surgeon put two nylon meshes in my abdomen, which the muscle tissue could then attach itself to in order to repair itself — an inguinal hernia is a rupture in the abdominal wall, which is muscle tissue. And there are plenty of people who've got pieces of metal in their arms or legs for fixing a broken bone, as well as that there are people with artificial hips, and even artificial heart valves.

    But yes, on the other hand, I do see where you're coming from. Bones make up for the skeleton. So what if an entire skeleton could be constructed out of this material? Or what if certain people adapt this material to be added to existing skeletal structures, in order to create — say — "super soldier" type of beings? And given that these skeletal structures are artificial, they could also be used as a scaffold for non-biological "enhancements" of all sorts, creating as such a cyborg (or if you will, "a bionic person").

    There's definitely food for thought there, and as with every new invention, things could be used for the better, or for worse. The problem is that the human species does so far not have a good track record on distinguishing which is which...
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    Quote Originally posted by Aragorn View Post
    Well, from the purely chemical point of view, the word "organic" refers to any substance which includes the element carbon. That doesn't necessarily mean that it's a biological compound, though.

    But yes, the line between synthetic and biological is blurring more and more, as science manages to isolate more and more distinct substances which exist within the body of a living being.







    I don't think that this in itself would be a form of transhumanism, although I certainly do see how transhumanism itself could employ some of these techniques. These artificial bones are intended as a scaffold — or template, if you will — upon which real bone could form, generated by stem cells, as well as blood vessels and muscle tissue. In itself it's not too different from dental work, or from certain implants which many of us have as a result of an accident or another injury.

    For instance, when I had my surgery for the bilateral inguinal hernia back in 1998, the surgeon put two nylon meshes in my abdomen, which the muscle tissue could then attach itself to in order to repair itself — an inguinal hernia is a rupture in the abdominal wall, which is muscle tissue. And there are plenty of people who've got pieces of metal in their arms or legs for fixing a broken bone, as well as that there are people with artificial hips, and even artificial heart valves.

    But yes, on the other hand, I do see where you're coming from. Bones make up for the skeleton. So what if an entire skeleton could be constructed out of this material? Or what if certain people adapt this material to be added to existing skeletal structures, in order to create — say — "super soldier" type of beings? And given that these skeletal structures are artificial, they could also be used as a scaffold for non-biological "enhancements" of all sorts, creating as such a cyborg (or if you will, "a bionic person").

    There's definitely food for thought there, and as with every new invention, things could be used for the better, or for worse. The problem is that the human species does so far not have a good track record on distinguishing which is which...



    I totally agree with everything you say here. Hydroxyapatite is organic, but they do say there are synthetic components as well. I think I was referring more to the feel of basically "printing" a portion of the body, one that is specific for a given individual and then incorporating it into the body. I think it is wonderful, by the way, but it seems like a tiny step in the direction of trans humanism that we will not even see coming. There's just something about a computer making a body part to order and becoming comfortable with that concept that gives me a little shiver. We are conditioned to picture a cyborg, or a chip under the skin but I don't think it will play out that way. And to be honest, I'm not convinced it is a bad thing, although I am sure someone will find a way to make it bad.

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    Quote Originally posted by pointessa View Post
    [...] I think it is wonderful, by the way, but it seems like a tiny step in the direction of trans humanism that we will not even see coming.
    Yes, I agree with that.

    Quote Originally posted by pointessa View Post
    There's just something about a computer making a body part to order and becoming comfortable with that concept that gives me a little shiver.
    Personally, I have mixed feelings about it. I find it fascinating and hope-instilling on the one hand, and eerie and creepy on the other hand.

    Quote Originally posted by pointessa View Post
    We are conditioned to picture a cyborg, or a chip under the skin but I don't think it will play out that way. And to be honest, I'm not convinced it is a bad thing, although I am sure someone will find a way to make it bad.
    I hear you. And I'm also thinking about the desire of some — or should I say "many"? — to become immortal. It's not unthinkable, given the society we live in, that somebody would come up with some 3D-printed replacement parts for organs or whatever that turn out so resilient that they could extend someone's life expectancy to, say, 200 years. And then all that needs to be done of course is make sure that the ingredients for that kind of substitution are only available to the super rich.

    The aristocrats' dream...
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